South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol begins work from bunker, sworn in hours later

South Korea’s new president Yoon Suk-yeol began his five-year term at midnight with his first briefing as commander-in-chief from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Yoon started his work from an underground bunker set up at his new presidential office amid high tension in the Korean peninsula.

Hours later, Yoon was sworn in as the president in a huge formal ceremony at Seoul’s National Assembly.

“I solemnly swear before the people that I will faithfully perform the duties of the president,” said Yoon, who has vowed to get tough with Pyongyang.

However, in first speech as the president, Yoon said the door for dialogue with North Korea will remain open. South Korea was prepared to present an “audacious plan” to strengthen North Korea’s economy if it embarked on a process to complete denuclearisation, he added.

“While North Korea’s nuclear weapon programs are a threat not only to our security and that of Northeast Asia, the door to dialogue will remain open so that we can peacefully resolve this threat,” Yoon said.

Yoon, 61, had won a tight election in March as the standard bearer of the main conservative People Power Party, less than a year after entering politics after a 26-year career as a prosecutor.